Thousands of prices just dropped across Thryft
Our price drop is now live! Find lowered prices on thousands of one-of-a-kind finds across Thryft
Free delivery on all orders above $30
Get 10% off all year round! Join Thryft Club
Get 10% off all year round and $10 off your next order! Join Thryft Club

This item is sold out

Get an email when a matching copy is available again.

The Whisperers : Private Life in Stalin's Russia

Orlando Figes

Which copies would you like?
Condition and budgetAny condition · No price limit

Excludes delivery. This filters future availability alerts; it is not a price-drop alert.

We check inventory once a day. We’ll email you once when we find a matching copy. Copies aren’t reserved. This does not sign you up for marketing emails.

The Whisperers : Private Life in Stalin's Russia

Regular price
Unit price
per
  • The Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize Nominee (2008)
  • Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction Nominee (2008)
Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.

The Whisperers : Private Life in Stalin's Russia

Regular price
Unit price
per
Condition guide
ISBN: 9780805074611
Author: Orlando Figes
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
Date of Publication: 2007-11-13
Format: Hardcover
Related Collections: Politics, Biographies & Memoirs, History
Goodreads rating: 4.25
(rated by 2893 readers)

Description

From the award-winning author of A People's Tragedy and Natasha's Dance, a landmark account of what private life was like for Russians in the worst years of Soviet repression There have been many accounts of the public aspects of Stalin's dictatorship: the arrests and trials, the enslavement and killing in the gulags. No previous book, however, has explored the regime's effect on people's personal lives, what one historian called "the Stalinism that entered into all of us." Now, drawing on a huge collection of newly discovered documents, The Whisperers reveals for the first time the inner world of ordinary Soviet citizens as they struggled to survive amidst the mistrust, fear, compromises, and betrayals that pervaded their existence.Moving from the Revolution of 1917 to the death of Stalin and beyond, Orlando Figes re-creates the moral maze in which Russians found themselves, where one wrong turn could destroy a family, or perversely, end up saving it. He brings us inside cramped communal apartments, where minor squabbles could lead to fatal denunciations; he examines the Communist faithful, who often rationalized even their own arrest as a case of mistaken identity; and he casts a humanizing light on informers, demonstrating how, in a repressive system, anyone could easily become a collaborator.A vast panoramic portrait of a society in which everyone spoke in whispers--whether to protect their families and friends, or to inform upon them--The Whisperers is a gripping account of lives lived in impossible times.
 

  • The Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize Nominee (2008)
  • Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction Nominee (2008)
Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.

You might enjoy this if…

View book details